China's first protection reserve for Siberian Tiger and Far East Leopard is to be set up in Hunchun City of Jilin Province, northeast China.
Sources from the State Forestry Bureau said that the reserve is to be laid out in the region of Hunchun River adjacent to Sino-Russia and Sino-DPRK borders, covering an area of 87.8 thousand hectares plus an outer protection belt up to 50 thousand.
It is said that there only exist 400 Siberian tigers and no more than 20-30 Far East leopards in the world and they are on the brink of extinction. Hunchun City, as one of the major habitats of the two said species in Asia, has only three to five Siberian Tigers and four to seven Far East Leopards.
Bordering on Russia and DPRK, Hunchun City roused great interests from the International Organization of Endangered Species Animal Protection due to its importance of being an ecological corridor.
(People's Daily 05/23/2001)
